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75th Year No. 104 Good Morning! It's Friday, January 14, 1983 2 Sections 14 Pages 25 Cents
Miller guilty of capital murder, sentenced to life
By Scott Nishimura and Kevin Hemingway
Mlssourtan staH writers
UNION, Mo. Dolores Miller listened
calmly Thursday afternoon as the judge
read the verdict in her capital murder trial.
The jury. of seven women and five men
found her guilty, returning its decision at 5
p. m. after six hours of deliberation.
Mrs. Miller later told reporters she was
stunned.
She and Patsy Hayes, a friend who testi-fied
as a character witness Wednesday, em-braced.
Mrs. Hayes was crying. Mrs. Miller
comforted her.
" That's all right," she repeated over and
over.
" They weren't fair," Mrs. Hayes pro-tested.
" They didn't take the truth they
were biased."
Mrs. Miller had grown visibly agitated as
the jury's deliberation dragged on. She and
Mrs. Hayes had lunch with reporters at a lo
cal cafe, but soon were back at the court-house,
pacing the halls. Both appeared tired
by the time it was announced that the jury
was returning.
As they sat awaiting the reading of the ver-dict
by Circuit Judge Lawrence Davis, de-fense
attorney Patrick Eng leaned toward
Mrs. Miller and in a hushed voice urged her
to remain calm no matter what. She did pre-cisely
as she was told.
" I still feel like the truth will come out,"
she said optimistically as several reporters
converged upon her following adjournment
of the trial.
Capital murder is the only crime in Mis-souri
punishable by death, but Boone County
Prosecutor Joe Moseley had not pursued
capital punishment Davis followed the rec-ommendation
of the jury and sentenced Mrs.
Miller, 52, to the state's second highest pen-alty
life in prison, with no chance for pro-bation
or parole for 50 years.
The jury could have returned one of four
verdicts: guilty of capital murder, guilty of
second degree murder, guilty of manslaugh-ter
or not guilty.
Over Eng's objection, Davis also approved
a motion by Moseley to raise Mrs. Miller's
bond from $ 1,000 to $ 100,000. Eng argued that
Mrs. Miller had been prompt in attending all
pre- tri- al hearings, despite the fact that she
only recently learned Moseley would not
seek the death penalty.
Mrs. Miller was remanded to the custody
of the Franklin County sheriff and was
brought to Columbia Thursday night. The
trial had been transferred to Union on a
change of venue requested by Eng, who ar-gued
that it would be impossible for Mrs.
Miller to receive a fair trial in Boone County
due to pretrial pubicity.
Davis said Eng will have 25 days to file a
motion for a new trial before Mrs. Miller
must begin her sentence. Moseley said he is
confident Eng would be unsuccessful in a bid
for a new trial.
" I saw no error in the case." Moseley said.
Mrs. Miller was charged with slaying her
husband, Erroll " Roy" Miller, in March
1982. She was accused of injecting insulin
into his I. V. bag as he lay recovering from
brain surgery at Truman Veterans Medical
Center.
Moseley told reporters that a signed con-fession
was the most damning piece of evi-dence
in the case.
" Her statement helped prove there was a
crime," he said.
According to the statement, Mrs. Miller
admitted killing her husband with insulin she
took from a nurses' station. But she claimed
it was a mercy killing suggested bv her hus-band.
Moseley. on the other hand, insisted the
slaving was premeditated murder. He
stressed that Mrs. Miller was knowledgeable
of the effects of insulin and that a bag of sy-ringes
was found in her car following her ar-rest.
In his closing argument Thursday. Eng at-tempted
to discredit the confession. He im-plied
that Columbia police made up incrimi-nating
statements, then slipped them into
the five- pag- e document before offering it to
Mrs. Miller to sign.
Jurors were unconvinced, however.
" The police department can't collaborate
all together to make up this document.' said
juror Joyce Pollack. That was an over-whelming
consideration of the juror;,, sho
said.
Wednesday, Eng had accused Oiumbia
police detective Randy McMillcn of tri kiii
Miller by guaranteeing she would be re-leased
to make funeral arrangmcr. ts for her
husband if she signed the conft- sMo- r. Sin- signe- d
it, Eng said, and wasarrestcd.
McMillen denied a'trnnu the srtenioiit
but said he wasn't surprised by Fnu's act u- sat- ion
it is a typical approach among de-fense
attorneys, he said.
Union man
James Salmon, Route 10, ascends a
scaffold atop the University's Memori-al
Union tower. Salmon and other B. D.
Simon Construction Co. employess
P. Kln Mottoy
are repairing the pinnacles of the tow-er,
which were damaged in a storm
two summers ago. Repairs should be
completed by mid- summe- r.
Military advisers oppose pay freeze
New York Times
WASHINGTON The Air Force's chief
of staff, Gen. Charles A. Gabriel, said
Thursday the president's military advisers
would have urged a cut in arms programs
rather than a pay freeze had they been con-sulted
on the administration's plan to slow
military spending.
Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger
announced Tuesday th? t he had recom-mended
to President Reagan an $ 8 billion
cut in projected military spending in 1984.
About half of that would come from re-duced
inflation and fuel costs, with the rest
to come from a lid on pay, reduced training
and deferred military construction.
Gabriel, in a meeting with reporters, said
that " the part that bothers us most is the
possibility of a pay cut" as the Joint Chiefs
of Staff consider " personnel our top priori-ty."
He said the five chiefs feared a lid on
pay would hurt recruiting, retention of ser-geants
and young officers, and readiness of
the forces.
The Air Force leader sail' the joint chiefs
would have preferred a cut in purchases of
weapons or in research. But he added, with
a smile, " I'm not going' to give you a hit
list"
Asked why the chiefs had not been con-sulted,
Gabriel said: " I can't answer that."
He said that " I would have appreciated, as
the other chiefs would have, having a part
in that process." He also said he did not
know whether the administration planned a
lid on pay that would permit a small in-crease
or a total freeze.
The general, saying that the joint chiefs
had met with the president three times
within the last six months, said the topic
would come up at the next meeting later
this month or next month.
A spokesman for Weinberger declined to
comment on why the views of the joint
chiefs had not been sought. The administra-tion
also did not consult congressional lead-ers
before announcing the military budget
cuts, which caused rumbles on Capitol Hill.
It was also the second time in recent
weeks that members of the joint chiefs
have differed publicly with Weinberger and
the president Three chiefs expressed
doubts last month about the administra-tion's
proposal to base the homeless MX
Joint Chiefs of Staff fear move
would hurt recruiting, retention
of young officers, troop readiness
missile in a closely spaced base known as
dense pack.
Those doubts appeared to have in-fluenced
Congress to vote down funds for
producing the missiles this year and the
president's decision to name a panel of
prominent citizens, headed by Lt. Gen.
Brent Scon croft, a retired Air Force offi-cer,
to review the missile issue.
The differences on MX basing were dis-closed
in congressional testimony when the
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen.
John W. Vessey Jr., was asked for them.
Military officers testifying before Congress
are required to state their professional
views when asked.
In the Thursday morning meeting, Ga-briel
did not volunteer his disagreement
over the pay lid but responded to questions
from reporters. At the same time, he em-phasized
that working relations between
the chiefs and the administration were
close.
With the chairman, Vessey, on a visit to
Thailand, the acting chairman. Gen. Rob-ert
H. Barrow of the Marine Corps, issued a
statement Thursday afternoon asserting
that " the United States military establish-ment
is ready to respond to the president's
request and to do its part in restoring eco-nomic
strength to the nation."
Barrow said that " the joint chiefs are
confident the president understands the
needs of all government employees and will
recognize them in future budgets."
Earlier in the day, Barrow, in his post as
commandant of the Marine Corps, declined
comment A spokesman for the chief of na-val
operations, Adm. James D. Watkins,
said the admiral was out of town and could
not be reached for comment
A spokesman for the chief of staff of the
Army, Gen. Edward C. Meyer, said Meyer
would not have taken the cuts from the pay
account had the decision been his. But he
said that Meyer, who had made his views
known to the administration lr. fornialh .
had declined to speculate on what he would
have cut.
Even though Vessey. an Army oificer
was out of the country, an aide pointed to a
recent speech in Baltimore in which the
general said the joint chiefs had reported to
the president last month that " progress had
been made in the readiness of the forces
and particularly in the quality of service
men and women."
" All the chiefs pointed out that the hem-orrhage
of talent among the skilled officers
and non- commissio- ned officers had been
stopped," Vessey said. Gabriel asserted, as
Weinberger has previously, that making
pay levels comparable with those in civil-ian
life had done much to accomplish that.
The Air Force chief said the services had
asked for a 7.6 percent pay raise in the fis-cal
year that begins Oct 1 and were hoping
that 4 percent " would be the worst we
would see." He said that " we have to see if
there is something else we can do to ease
the pain of the troops." He noted that a
serviceman or woman ordered to a new sta-tion
often had to spend $ 1,500 to $ 2,000 of
their own money to move.
An unmarried private soldier who lives in
barracks and eats in the Army mess hall
earns, after completing basic training,
$ 642.90 a month. A married staff sergeant
with 10 years service and living off post
earns $ 1,143.30 a month plus $ 303.30 for
quarters and $ 4.68 a day for rations.
Among young officers, a Navy lieutenant.
junior grade, with three years service and
living off base even though unmarried
earns $ 1,660.80 a month plus $ 286.20 for
quarters and $ 98.17 for subsistence. The lat-ter
two, in all cases, are not taxable.
In the senior ranks, a married Air Force
colonel with 20 years service and living off
the air base earns $ 3488.40 a month and
$ 556.80 for quarters and $ 98.17 for subsis-tence.
Arson awareness increases in Columbia
By Steve Biehn
Missourian staff writer
Arson is not a significant problem in Co-lumbia,
says Columbia Fire Marshal Don
Christian. Yet some of 1982' s most spectac-ular
and costly blazes were purposely set.
A fire Oct 23 at the Holiday House apart-ment
complex, located off Stadium Boule-vard
near Crossroads Shopping Center,
caused about $ 1 million in damage. It also
left three people injured and 55 homeless. A
flammable liquid, which fire investigators
were unable to identify, was used to start
the blaze at the base of a stairwell.
A 30- year--
old woman confessed Dec. 10 to
setting both the Holiday House fire and a
fire that caused $ 30,000 in damage to an
apartment building at 1608 Richardson St.
on Thanksgiving.
t
Christian said he believes there is a con-nection
between the fire at the Holiday
House apartment complex and the blaze on
Richardson Street " We think the same per-son
set both," he said.
But officials are not convinced the wom-an,
who has been confined to the Mid- Misso- uri
Mental Health Center, is the connec-tion.
She was not charged when aspects of
her story conflicted with facts about the
crimes.
Crimestoppers is offering $ 1,000 for infor-mation
leading to the arrest of anyone re-sponsible
for the fire at the Holiday House
apartment complex. An additional $ 4,000
has been offered by Executive Affiliates
Inc., owners of the complex.
At one point a police spokesnn said
that whoever set the Holiday House fire
may have been responsible for at least nine
other fires occuring in western Columbia
since April. Since the confession in Decem-ber,
at least two more suspicious fires have
been reported to the Columbia police.
State Fire Marshall Jim Helbig said as
many as 30 percent of all fires may be de-liberately
set especially in rural areas. He
added, however, that the cause is some-times
difficult to determine, particularly
when a structure burns to the ground .
" I think partially it's due to the economic- problem,- "
he said. " We're finding a lot of
attempts to defraud insurance companies."
Chief Steve Paulsell of the Boone County
See CONFIRMED. Page 10A
UMSL under fire for staging controversial play
By Ellen Hosmor
Stato capital bureau J
JEFFERSON CITY University
of Missouri- St-. Louis administrators
can expect some tough questions
when they come before the Senate
Appropriations Committee for their
fiscal year budget request next
week.
Committee Chairman Edwin
Dirck, D-- St Louis County, said the
University may be violating the
state constitution by allowing the
controversial play " Sister Mary Ig-natius
Explains It All," to be staged
on the St. Louis campus.
The play, a satirical look at the pa-rochial
upbringing of four youths,
has drawn fire in New York, Detroit
and Chicago.
Committee members described
the play as " anti- Catholi- c."
i )
Missouri Council on Arts feels same flame
" obscene" and " anti- Christia- n" dur-ing
a Wednesday hearing on the bud-get
request of the Missouri Council
on the Arts.
The committee chastized the coun-cil
because it contributes money to
the Theatre Project Company of St.
Louis, the group that is producing
the play and rented the J. C. Penney
Building on UMSL's campus to stage
Dirck said be thought the Univer-sity
and the council may be in viola-tion
of a constitutional provision that
prohibits state government from dis-criminating
against any religion or
form of worship.
During the hearing. Sen. Richard
Webster, D- Carth- age, repeatedly
asked council members to cancel
their $ 16i09 grant to the production
company and threatened to vote
against the entire state appropria-tion
if the grant was not canceled.
" We are paying the bill for a very
poorly written ( play) which is de-signed
to ridicule the whole concept
of Christianity," Webster said.
Each committee member was pro-vided
with a script of the play. Sen.
Harry Wiggins, D- Kan- sas City,
called the script " obscene" and said
he was forced to hide his copy in the
trunk of his car so his mother would
not read it.
Council on the Arts Chairman Tal-bot
MacCarthy defended the deci-sion
to fund the production company.
" I really don't think the state gov-ernment
has a role in censoring,"
she said.
Mrs. MacCarthy pointed out that
t
no council money was funding this
particular play because the storm
of protest against it has helped to
sell tickets. Instead, she said, the
grant would be used to fund the com-pany's
less successful plays.
The committee members were not
appeased.
" You put me and this committee
in a very difficult situation," Dirck
said. " We have no constitutional
mandate nor statutory requirement
to fund the Council on the Arts."
Mrs. MacCarthy said she would
report the senator's sentiments back
to the council, which would decide
what to do next.
Meanwhile, Dirck warned, the Ap-propriations
Committee will deal
with UMSL at the University's bud-get
meeting on Thursday.
8: 30 a. m.- 1: 3- 0 p. m. Red Cross
Bloodmobile at the University's
General Services Building.
Noon and 5: 30 p. m. Film on Mar-tin
Luther King sponsored by the
University's Black Studies Pro-gram,
Memorial Union, Room S- 20- 3.
Free.
Inside
Business 9A
Classified 3- 4- B
Comics . .8A
Opinion 4A
Record .9A
Sports 1- 2- B
Weekend 5- 7- A
i
Clogging away
" Once you get started, you'd
rather clog than eat," says one
devotee of age- ol- d wooden- sho- e
dancing, which has been redisco-vered
in Missouri. Others prefer
fingerpoppin,' and for them
KOPN radio offers a special pro-gram.
If you don't clog or finger- po- p
but do read, turn to Weekend,
Page 5A, to learn more.
Church vs. slate
States keep losing in court
when their attempts to control
churclwun schools are chal-lenged
in court, and columnist
James Kilpatrick thinks that's a
good thing. The latest ruling, in
fact, determined that existing
programs at one parochial school
exceeded the guidelines that the
state was trying to impose. Read
his comments on Page 4A.

75th Year No. 104 Good Morning! It's Friday, January 14, 1983 2 Sections 14 Pages 25 Cents
Miller guilty of capital murder, sentenced to life
By Scott Nishimura and Kevin Hemingway
Mlssourtan staH writers
UNION, Mo. Dolores Miller listened
calmly Thursday afternoon as the judge
read the verdict in her capital murder trial.
The jury. of seven women and five men
found her guilty, returning its decision at 5
p. m. after six hours of deliberation.
Mrs. Miller later told reporters she was
stunned.
She and Patsy Hayes, a friend who testi-fied
as a character witness Wednesday, em-braced.
Mrs. Hayes was crying. Mrs. Miller
comforted her.
" That's all right," she repeated over and
over.
" They weren't fair," Mrs. Hayes pro-tested.
" They didn't take the truth they
were biased."
Mrs. Miller had grown visibly agitated as
the jury's deliberation dragged on. She and
Mrs. Hayes had lunch with reporters at a lo
cal cafe, but soon were back at the court-house,
pacing the halls. Both appeared tired
by the time it was announced that the jury
was returning.
As they sat awaiting the reading of the ver-dict
by Circuit Judge Lawrence Davis, de-fense
attorney Patrick Eng leaned toward
Mrs. Miller and in a hushed voice urged her
to remain calm no matter what. She did pre-cisely
as she was told.
" I still feel like the truth will come out,"
she said optimistically as several reporters
converged upon her following adjournment
of the trial.
Capital murder is the only crime in Mis-souri
punishable by death, but Boone County
Prosecutor Joe Moseley had not pursued
capital punishment Davis followed the rec-ommendation
of the jury and sentenced Mrs.
Miller, 52, to the state's second highest pen-alty
life in prison, with no chance for pro-bation
or parole for 50 years.
The jury could have returned one of four
verdicts: guilty of capital murder, guilty of
second degree murder, guilty of manslaugh-ter
or not guilty.
Over Eng's objection, Davis also approved
a motion by Moseley to raise Mrs. Miller's
bond from $ 1,000 to $ 100,000. Eng argued that
Mrs. Miller had been prompt in attending all
pre- tri- al hearings, despite the fact that she
only recently learned Moseley would not
seek the death penalty.
Mrs. Miller was remanded to the custody
of the Franklin County sheriff and was
brought to Columbia Thursday night. The
trial had been transferred to Union on a
change of venue requested by Eng, who ar-gued
that it would be impossible for Mrs.
Miller to receive a fair trial in Boone County
due to pretrial pubicity.
Davis said Eng will have 25 days to file a
motion for a new trial before Mrs. Miller
must begin her sentence. Moseley said he is
confident Eng would be unsuccessful in a bid
for a new trial.
" I saw no error in the case." Moseley said.
Mrs. Miller was charged with slaying her
husband, Erroll " Roy" Miller, in March
1982. She was accused of injecting insulin
into his I. V. bag as he lay recovering from
brain surgery at Truman Veterans Medical
Center.
Moseley told reporters that a signed con-fession
was the most damning piece of evi-dence
in the case.
" Her statement helped prove there was a
crime," he said.
According to the statement, Mrs. Miller
admitted killing her husband with insulin she
took from a nurses' station. But she claimed
it was a mercy killing suggested bv her hus-band.
Moseley. on the other hand, insisted the
slaving was premeditated murder. He
stressed that Mrs. Miller was knowledgeable
of the effects of insulin and that a bag of sy-ringes
was found in her car following her ar-rest.
In his closing argument Thursday. Eng at-tempted
to discredit the confession. He im-plied
that Columbia police made up incrimi-nating
statements, then slipped them into
the five- pag- e document before offering it to
Mrs. Miller to sign.
Jurors were unconvinced, however.
" The police department can't collaborate
all together to make up this document.' said
juror Joyce Pollack. That was an over-whelming
consideration of the juror;,, sho
said.
Wednesday, Eng had accused Oiumbia
police detective Randy McMillcn of tri kiii
Miller by guaranteeing she would be re-leased
to make funeral arrangmcr. ts for her
husband if she signed the conft- sMo- r. Sin- signe- d
it, Eng said, and wasarrestcd.
McMillen denied a'trnnu the srtenioiit
but said he wasn't surprised by Fnu's act u- sat- ion
it is a typical approach among de-fense
attorneys, he said.
Union man
James Salmon, Route 10, ascends a
scaffold atop the University's Memori-al
Union tower. Salmon and other B. D.
Simon Construction Co. employess
P. Kln Mottoy
are repairing the pinnacles of the tow-er,
which were damaged in a storm
two summers ago. Repairs should be
completed by mid- summe- r.
Military advisers oppose pay freeze
New York Times
WASHINGTON The Air Force's chief
of staff, Gen. Charles A. Gabriel, said
Thursday the president's military advisers
would have urged a cut in arms programs
rather than a pay freeze had they been con-sulted
on the administration's plan to slow
military spending.
Secretary of Defense Caspar Weinberger
announced Tuesday th? t he had recom-mended
to President Reagan an $ 8 billion
cut in projected military spending in 1984.
About half of that would come from re-duced
inflation and fuel costs, with the rest
to come from a lid on pay, reduced training
and deferred military construction.
Gabriel, in a meeting with reporters, said
that " the part that bothers us most is the
possibility of a pay cut" as the Joint Chiefs
of Staff consider " personnel our top priori-ty."
He said the five chiefs feared a lid on
pay would hurt recruiting, retention of ser-geants
and young officers, and readiness of
the forces.
The Air Force leader sail' the joint chiefs
would have preferred a cut in purchases of
weapons or in research. But he added, with
a smile, " I'm not going' to give you a hit
list"
Asked why the chiefs had not been con-sulted,
Gabriel said: " I can't answer that."
He said that " I would have appreciated, as
the other chiefs would have, having a part
in that process." He also said he did not
know whether the administration planned a
lid on pay that would permit a small in-crease
or a total freeze.
The general, saying that the joint chiefs
had met with the president three times
within the last six months, said the topic
would come up at the next meeting later
this month or next month.
A spokesman for Weinberger declined to
comment on why the views of the joint
chiefs had not been sought. The administra-tion
also did not consult congressional lead-ers
before announcing the military budget
cuts, which caused rumbles on Capitol Hill.
It was also the second time in recent
weeks that members of the joint chiefs
have differed publicly with Weinberger and
the president Three chiefs expressed
doubts last month about the administra-tion's
proposal to base the homeless MX
Joint Chiefs of Staff fear move
would hurt recruiting, retention
of young officers, troop readiness
missile in a closely spaced base known as
dense pack.
Those doubts appeared to have in-fluenced
Congress to vote down funds for
producing the missiles this year and the
president's decision to name a panel of
prominent citizens, headed by Lt. Gen.
Brent Scon croft, a retired Air Force offi-cer,
to review the missile issue.
The differences on MX basing were dis-closed
in congressional testimony when the
chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen.
John W. Vessey Jr., was asked for them.
Military officers testifying before Congress
are required to state their professional
views when asked.
In the Thursday morning meeting, Ga-briel
did not volunteer his disagreement
over the pay lid but responded to questions
from reporters. At the same time, he em-phasized
that working relations between
the chiefs and the administration were
close.
With the chairman, Vessey, on a visit to
Thailand, the acting chairman. Gen. Rob-ert
H. Barrow of the Marine Corps, issued a
statement Thursday afternoon asserting
that " the United States military establish-ment
is ready to respond to the president's
request and to do its part in restoring eco-nomic
strength to the nation."
Barrow said that " the joint chiefs are
confident the president understands the
needs of all government employees and will
recognize them in future budgets."
Earlier in the day, Barrow, in his post as
commandant of the Marine Corps, declined
comment A spokesman for the chief of na-val
operations, Adm. James D. Watkins,
said the admiral was out of town and could
not be reached for comment
A spokesman for the chief of staff of the
Army, Gen. Edward C. Meyer, said Meyer
would not have taken the cuts from the pay
account had the decision been his. But he
said that Meyer, who had made his views
known to the administration lr. fornialh .
had declined to speculate on what he would
have cut.
Even though Vessey. an Army oificer
was out of the country, an aide pointed to a
recent speech in Baltimore in which the
general said the joint chiefs had reported to
the president last month that " progress had
been made in the readiness of the forces
and particularly in the quality of service
men and women."
" All the chiefs pointed out that the hem-orrhage
of talent among the skilled officers
and non- commissio- ned officers had been
stopped," Vessey said. Gabriel asserted, as
Weinberger has previously, that making
pay levels comparable with those in civil-ian
life had done much to accomplish that.
The Air Force chief said the services had
asked for a 7.6 percent pay raise in the fis-cal
year that begins Oct 1 and were hoping
that 4 percent " would be the worst we
would see." He said that " we have to see if
there is something else we can do to ease
the pain of the troops." He noted that a
serviceman or woman ordered to a new sta-tion
often had to spend $ 1,500 to $ 2,000 of
their own money to move.
An unmarried private soldier who lives in
barracks and eats in the Army mess hall
earns, after completing basic training,
$ 642.90 a month. A married staff sergeant
with 10 years service and living off post
earns $ 1,143.30 a month plus $ 303.30 for
quarters and $ 4.68 a day for rations.
Among young officers, a Navy lieutenant.
junior grade, with three years service and
living off base even though unmarried
earns $ 1,660.80 a month plus $ 286.20 for
quarters and $ 98.17 for subsistence. The lat-ter
two, in all cases, are not taxable.
In the senior ranks, a married Air Force
colonel with 20 years service and living off
the air base earns $ 3488.40 a month and
$ 556.80 for quarters and $ 98.17 for subsis-tence.
Arson awareness increases in Columbia
By Steve Biehn
Missourian staff writer
Arson is not a significant problem in Co-lumbia,
says Columbia Fire Marshal Don
Christian. Yet some of 1982' s most spectac-ular
and costly blazes were purposely set.
A fire Oct 23 at the Holiday House apart-ment
complex, located off Stadium Boule-vard
near Crossroads Shopping Center,
caused about $ 1 million in damage. It also
left three people injured and 55 homeless. A
flammable liquid, which fire investigators
were unable to identify, was used to start
the blaze at the base of a stairwell.
A 30- year--
old woman confessed Dec. 10 to
setting both the Holiday House fire and a
fire that caused $ 30,000 in damage to an
apartment building at 1608 Richardson St.
on Thanksgiving.
t
Christian said he believes there is a con-nection
between the fire at the Holiday
House apartment complex and the blaze on
Richardson Street " We think the same per-son
set both," he said.
But officials are not convinced the wom-an,
who has been confined to the Mid- Misso- uri
Mental Health Center, is the connec-tion.
She was not charged when aspects of
her story conflicted with facts about the
crimes.
Crimestoppers is offering $ 1,000 for infor-mation
leading to the arrest of anyone re-sponsible
for the fire at the Holiday House
apartment complex. An additional $ 4,000
has been offered by Executive Affiliates
Inc., owners of the complex.
At one point a police spokesnn said
that whoever set the Holiday House fire
may have been responsible for at least nine
other fires occuring in western Columbia
since April. Since the confession in Decem-ber,
at least two more suspicious fires have
been reported to the Columbia police.
State Fire Marshall Jim Helbig said as
many as 30 percent of all fires may be de-liberately
set especially in rural areas. He
added, however, that the cause is some-times
difficult to determine, particularly
when a structure burns to the ground .
" I think partially it's due to the economic- problem,- "
he said. " We're finding a lot of
attempts to defraud insurance companies."
Chief Steve Paulsell of the Boone County
See CONFIRMED. Page 10A
UMSL under fire for staging controversial play
By Ellen Hosmor
Stato capital bureau J
JEFFERSON CITY University
of Missouri- St-. Louis administrators
can expect some tough questions
when they come before the Senate
Appropriations Committee for their
fiscal year budget request next
week.
Committee Chairman Edwin
Dirck, D-- St Louis County, said the
University may be violating the
state constitution by allowing the
controversial play " Sister Mary Ig-natius
Explains It All," to be staged
on the St. Louis campus.
The play, a satirical look at the pa-rochial
upbringing of four youths,
has drawn fire in New York, Detroit
and Chicago.
Committee members described
the play as " anti- Catholi- c."
i )
Missouri Council on Arts feels same flame
" obscene" and " anti- Christia- n" dur-ing
a Wednesday hearing on the bud-get
request of the Missouri Council
on the Arts.
The committee chastized the coun-cil
because it contributes money to
the Theatre Project Company of St.
Louis, the group that is producing
the play and rented the J. C. Penney
Building on UMSL's campus to stage
Dirck said be thought the Univer-sity
and the council may be in viola-tion
of a constitutional provision that
prohibits state government from dis-criminating
against any religion or
form of worship.
During the hearing. Sen. Richard
Webster, D- Carth- age, repeatedly
asked council members to cancel
their $ 16i09 grant to the production
company and threatened to vote
against the entire state appropria-tion
if the grant was not canceled.
" We are paying the bill for a very
poorly written ( play) which is de-signed
to ridicule the whole concept
of Christianity," Webster said.
Each committee member was pro-vided
with a script of the play. Sen.
Harry Wiggins, D- Kan- sas City,
called the script " obscene" and said
he was forced to hide his copy in the
trunk of his car so his mother would
not read it.
Council on the Arts Chairman Tal-bot
MacCarthy defended the deci-sion
to fund the production company.
" I really don't think the state gov-ernment
has a role in censoring,"
she said.
Mrs. MacCarthy pointed out that
t
no council money was funding this
particular play because the storm
of protest against it has helped to
sell tickets. Instead, she said, the
grant would be used to fund the com-pany's
less successful plays.
The committee members were not
appeased.
" You put me and this committee
in a very difficult situation," Dirck
said. " We have no constitutional
mandate nor statutory requirement
to fund the Council on the Arts."
Mrs. MacCarthy said she would
report the senator's sentiments back
to the council, which would decide
what to do next.
Meanwhile, Dirck warned, the Ap-propriations
Committee will deal
with UMSL at the University's bud-get
meeting on Thursday.
8: 30 a. m.- 1: 3- 0 p. m. Red Cross
Bloodmobile at the University's
General Services Building.
Noon and 5: 30 p. m. Film on Mar-tin
Luther King sponsored by the
University's Black Studies Pro-gram,
Memorial Union, Room S- 20- 3.
Free.
Inside
Business 9A
Classified 3- 4- B
Comics . .8A
Opinion 4A
Record .9A
Sports 1- 2- B
Weekend 5- 7- A
i
Clogging away
" Once you get started, you'd
rather clog than eat," says one
devotee of age- ol- d wooden- sho- e
dancing, which has been redisco-vered
in Missouri. Others prefer
fingerpoppin,' and for them
KOPN radio offers a special pro-gram.
If you don't clog or finger- po- p
but do read, turn to Weekend,
Page 5A, to learn more.
Church vs. slate
States keep losing in court
when their attempts to control
churclwun schools are chal-lenged
in court, and columnist
James Kilpatrick thinks that's a
good thing. The latest ruling, in
fact, determined that existing
programs at one parochial school
exceeded the guidelines that the
state was trying to impose. Read
his comments on Page 4A.